


4 - Running Out Of Time

by VickeyStar



Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Pre series, Spies, Whumptober 2020, this again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:36:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26815222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VickeyStar/pseuds/VickeyStar
Summary: He’s about to reply, when the building rumbles again, a bit harder.They both pause, and whether they admit it or not, their hearts both skip the same beat.Caged | Buried Alive | Collapsed Building
Relationships: Juliet Higgins & Richard Dane
Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946791
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	4 - Running Out Of Time

**Author's Note:**

> this is waaaay pre series.

She sighs.

“Are you sure I cannot make a phone call?” Juliet asks, shouting through the bars of her cell.

All she gets is an annoyed bang in response, the guard slamming his baton against the bars.

She rolls her eyes, looking back toward her new partner as he leans against the outer wall.

The ground shakes, a result of the battle going on around them, dust particles falling from the ceiling.

Every time the ground shakes, Juliet is reminded that they’re stuck in the basement, with five floors above them.

“Don’t worry,” her new partner speaks, “we’ll be fine.”

She purses her lips, pacing about the cell.

“We were supposed to be gone, _hours_ ago. The building’s going to be unstable, with the _bombs that we placed!_ ” She hisses, quietly anxious as the guard still ignores them.

That gets him to stand up, faux-reassuringly rubbing her forearms as he pulls her away from the guard’s sight, toward the back wall.

“We’ll be fine. Just stick by this back corner. It should be stable enough to shelter us from the worst of it.”

“Yes, and when we’re buried under the rubble? What shall we do then, if we haven’t been impaled, or otherwise injured?”

“Juliet—”

“Agent. Higgins.”

“Oh, screw propriety, we’re about to be blown up in a violent explosion, the least we can do is be on a first name basis with one another.”

She pulls away from him, leaning against the supposedly stable corner.

“We’re _spies_. Knowing each other’s names could one day get us killed.”

He’s about to reply, when the building rumbles again, a bit harder.

They both pause, and whether they admit it or not, their hearts both skip the same beat.

“I thought you set them for two hours from now?” Juliet whispers, wide eyes meeting her partner’s.

“I thought I did, too.”

They reach the same conclusion.

“We’re not the only ones here.”

“The Americans?” Juliet suggests, subconsciously matching her partner’s pacing as they walk around the cell.

“No, more likely to be the Chinese.”

She scoffs.

“They’d just send _him_.”

Her partner shudders at the mention.

“Don’t joke.”

She huffs a humorless smirk, both trying to ignore the rumbling above them.

She stops.

“Extra explosives.”

Her partner lifts an eyebrow.

“We set our charges, and if we’re hearing it right, they’ve set their own. Double the explosives…”

“Double the boom.” He finishes, looking suitably upset.

“So much for the corner of stability.” Juliet snarks, annoyed at the situation.

He gives her a grin, the rumbling finally becoming a loud _boom_.

“Here goes.”

The next thing she knows, he’s pushing her into the corner anyways, shielding her body as the ceiling collapses.

~*~

She wakes up in darkness.

Taking a sharp breath in at the pain emulating from her leg turns out to be a bad idea, she discovers as she coughs up dust particles.

Juliet pauses, taking a moment to reassess herself, when she realizes it.

There’s a person, on top of her.

She can’t see much at all, in the darkness, but she can make out the brown hair.

“Agent Dane.”

Her voice is quiet, and she’s suddenly hyperaware of his body, head on her shoulder and chest covering part of hers.

She moves an arm, shaking his shoulder.

He groans.

“Agent. Wake up.”

He moans again, mouth smacking as if waking from a nap.

_“Richard.”_

Suddenly, he’s wide awake.

“You called me Richard.”

She rolls her eyes and regrets it, head pounding from the base of her neck.

“Are you alright?”

He shuffles a bit, rubble and dust sprinkling down on top of the two as he does.

“I can move, but I think I’ve cracked a rib, or two.”

“That may be an issue.”

“I imagine it would be.”

She glances around, trying to ignore the pain in her neck as she looks.

“Estimated ETA on rescue?”

“A while.”

She purses her lips.

“We’re in a poor country, where we’re technically not supposed to be, Juliet. Not to mention the basement of the prison section of the Embassy, caught someplace we shouldn’t’ve been.”

She gets it, honestly.

Problem is, the back of her neck is injured, which means possible spinal damage, and she’s fairly certain that a piece of rebar is sticking through her hip.

“I don’t think we have a while.”

Richard pauses.

“Why do you say that?”

“I appear to have been impaled.”

A pause.

“You too, then?”

Her eyebrows lift in surprise, before she thinks.

He’s on top of her, covering her with his own body.

Her hip is just under his kidney.

_We really don’t have a while._

“Plan?”

He doesn’t respond.

“Agent?”

He huffs.

“Oh, come on, Juliet. We’re impaled together in the basement of a building we exploded, in a country that we’re not technically supposed to be in, and likely about to die. I think we can skip propriety, now.”

His response is her silence, refusing to admit to conceding to his point.

That silence is interrupted, by the wall next to them shifting, a bit.

Juliet furrows her brows, glancing without moving her head.

“How long have we been asleep, do you think?”

She hears him frown, feels his arm move down.

“Judging by the ground beneath us, quite a while.”

“Hours?”

“Sure.”

She would cock her head, if she didn’t think it’d hurt.

“Long enough for people to dig a hole in a dirt road?”

His silence is shocked.

“The rumbles started a while ago, it’s a quick sprint to the stairs, from the guard’s position.”

He considers it.

“Sure, but I don’t think the guard would be in any state to tell anyone about us.”

She smirks.

“Considering that he caught us, the only suspicious people in the building, hours before it collapses, I think we’re fresh on his mind.”

Her point is proven, as the wall next to the two begins to crumble, a bit.

“You two alright, in there?” A voice calls out, through the tiny hole in the wall.

“Lightly impaled, potential spinal damage to my lady friend here, other than that, we’re peachy.” Agent Dane responds, a cheerful tone in his voice.

“Yeah, I bet,” the voice replies. “Just give us a mo’, we’ll have you out in a jiffy.”

Juliet lets her head rest a bit, feeling an extra twinge of pain as relief comes crashing into her system.

While her vision’s already plenty dark, it’s difficult to know when her eyes are open or closed.

“You may want to hurry…” she speaks, just loud enough to be heard.

“Juliet?”

She feels her eyelids shut.

“Juliet!”

Shuffling around her, hands touch her face.

_“Juliet, wake up!”_

~*~

She’s in a hospital bed, her arm handcuffed to the railing.

Her eyes open, and it is _bright_.

“Took you long enough.”

She squints, tilting her head to the side, to see her new partner in a bed, next to her.

“Almost didn’t think you’d wake up at all.”

He’s flippant, but she sees the way he watches her. He’s concerned.

She shifts a bit, wincing at the pain in her hip.

“When are we leaving?”

He shrugs, in the corner of her eye.

“We’ll likely spend some time in an undisclosed location, but we’ll be able to handle it. Soon, ish.”

She lifts an eyebrow at his hesitation.

“We’ve both been impaled, and you’ve got a bit of a spinal injury. We’re not going anywhere for a while, Jules.”

She scoffs.

“Juliet.”

She immediately regrets it.

“Eh, took me one mission to get you to first name basis, I bet this time next year, we’ll have cute nicknames for each other.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Got to admit, though.”

He pauses, letting her glance his way.

“Helluva first mission together.”

She’s too tired to fight the smile that grows on her face.

“Sure.”

edn


End file.
